Reforms to our gun laws mean Australia is far safer than the US, where the likelihood of being shot is 15 times greater, former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer says.
Mr Fischer says Australia made a sharp turn away from the gun culture in 1996 following the Port Arthur massacre when gunman Martin Bryant, armed with a semi-automatic rifle, shot dead 35 people.
Mr Fischer, in Brisbane for a function marking the 70th anniversary of the arrival of wartime US General Douglas MacArthur, says the US gun control policy is broken.
In the latest mass shooting in the US, a gunman in the state of Colorado used a number of firearms to shoot dead 12 people and wound 58 others in a theatre screening the latest Batman movie.
Mr Fischer, who attracted considerable criticism from his rural constituency over his support of gun law reforms, said Australia had managed to drain the suburbs of semi-automatic firearms while protecting the rights of farmers and sporting shooters.
"It has reached the stage where the likelihood of being shot is 15 times greater in the United States than Australia, per 1000 people," he told AAP.
"People should be aware of this when making a decision to travel to the US."
